Beyond the enormous human suffering Putin’s war against Ukraine will doubtless inflict, the conflict has made one thing crystal clear: Europe must end its energy dependency on Russia and stop paying lip-service to plans to speed up the bloc’s energy transition.
Economic sanctions against military aggression will always stop short of the measure that would really hurt Russia – ceasing consumption of its oil and gas altogether – as long as the Russian president still has the power to leave European households in the cold by turning off the gas tap.
